The Bear Saga Continues...
I've had time for little else, and I'm losing my mind!
I hope you can all bear with me (teeehee, I just had to!) as I talk more about my bear adventures. Because that has literally been the main event around here for several weeks now!
After writing last week’s article, I immediately got a visitor the following morning.
See here if you missed it…
The bear who wanted my tea off the deck discovered the chicken coop, and like the young bear a few days before, he tried to get in and grab the food.
We managed to scare him away, but did not get a chance to use the bear spray and give him a proper fright, as he was too far away from us.
This was bad. Now I had 2 bears actively trying to get inside my coop!
On Mother’s Day afternoon, it got worse.
My kids and I had just returned from a lovely off-road drive to a resort about an hour away. We had a lot of fun, including some adventures with their off-roading rigs, involving deep water and steep rocky climbs, and enjoyed some amazing food after a hike around the resort. We came home happy and exhausted.
It was pouring rain by then, and we were all content to chill out and relax.
Well, suddenly my youngest looked out the window and saw the older bear from the other morning. He was under a tree near the coop, and I must say, he was a gorgeous specimen. We are guessing he is about 1.5 years old. Not too big, but not lanky anymore. Healthy and beautiful with a rich brown coat.
But the fact that he was hanging out there in a relaxed state got my spidey senses up!
I ran outside while my youngest called my oldest to come over with the gun.
Sure enough, when I got to the coop, I saw chickens outside, even though I hadn’t opened their door today. And then I saw a BIG hole under the door.
The bear had ripped it open and gotten out both my feeders, ripped them apart and eaten all their grain! Thus, the relaxed manner we found him in. He’d had a lovely snack.
My oldest chased him, but to no avail. He lost him quickly once he got to the thick forest canopy.
Meanwhile, my youngest and I hung out in the pouring rain, once again, working on coop repairs.
Not good. Now this bear had a taste of the food.
The next day, he came back.
We tried to get to him with bear spray, and then my kid tracked and chased him all over the place, trying to give him a warning shot or some pepper spray. Once again, the bear disappeared into the night.
I did some research that night (while I wasn’t sleeping due to paranoia) to figure out what smells might deter bears. There are a few essential oils that bears detest, like tea tree, but pure bleach seemed to be the winner.
So the next morning, I poured a jug of bleach all over the coop.
We had one day with no events, and spent some time fixing up the coop once again. I was hoping the bear was tired of not getting in and went to try elsewhere. I added more bleach before bed, hoping this would help keep them away.
But this morning (we are now on Wednesday, as I figured I might need to write this in sections with all that’s been going on), I once again woke to chaos!
I jumped out of bed, grabbed my robe, glasses and phone, put on my rubber boots (yes, I looked hot!), grabbed the bear spray and air horn and ran to the coop.
The bear was chewing through a new section of the coop!!
I chased him, I sprayed him several times, and very quickly realized the wind was in his favour. I was soon blinded by pepper spray. But I kept moving towards him, because every time I stopped, he turned to come back! I chased him all over the place. And then once I thought he went down one path, and I was good, he’d show up on a different path.
We played this game for half an hour. Meanwhile, my eyes were streaming and I could hardly see!
Finally, he seemed to have had enough, and I went in to tend to my burning face.
It was AWFUL!! I soaked my eyes and face as best I could, but it took about an hour for the burning sensations to dissipate.
I had to get to town for an appointment, so off I went, red-faced and exhausted.
We got through the rest of the day without incident, and once again, in the pouring rain, we spent time doing repairs on the coop in the evening.
Without fail, every time we have needed to repair the coop in the past week, it has started to rain!
Not just rain, but downpour!
Ohh, this situation is bringing us all endless joy (she said sarcastically!)!
This brings us to today, which is Saturday. We have had no incidents since Wednesday, and I am speculating that I did get the bear spray on the bear after all. I sure hope so!
But either way, my boyfriend is coming to help me set up an electric fence this afternoon!
One way or another, I hope this saga is coming to some kind of end. I’m exhausted, and I am losing my unconditional love of wildlife quickly!
But here is what I’ve learned thus far:
Bears seem to like chicken food more than actual chickens (or likely they are looking for the path of least resistance)
Don’t talk friendly to bears and tell them they are cute and should come live with you, because they might take you up on it
Bleach washes away quickly when there are torrents of rain, so don’t waste jug after jug of the stuff like I did
Chicken wire and anything plastic will not stand up to bears
Bear spray really hurts your skin and eyes
Bear spray is really expensive, as are air horns, and they get used up quickly!
Get a GoPro and wear it at all times, because no one can imagine how these sagas go, and they should be recorded so you can at least get rich from this crazy situation
I’ve probably learned more things, but I’m too tired to remember because, oh yeah, bears also cause insomnia!
Once we have some time, we have a coop to revamp and rebuild. It currently looks a bit like a junkyard, with pallets screwed all over the thing, covering the myriad of holes and gaps the bears created.
I’ll be back next week to tell you how it went. Hopefully, there will be little to report!
Wish me luck!
And have a great week, everyone!